dead elm bowl crack prevention

[bob]

was from a standing dead stem been dead years

in garage for 3 weeks

now in house tried to start in cooler areas

How do I stop it cracking

or should i have waited longer

I do have a few more similar blanks.

Cheers

[slackbladder]

Nice piece of Elm

One way which might help is to bind the upper edge with tape or a strap,to hold it together untill its dried but it will turn oval

the other thing is just to let it do its own thing then fill in any cracks

[slackbladder]

PS another idea is to rough turn the bowls to about 1 to 1.5 ins and then leave them to dry and then re turn

[tommer9]

I would have said you needed to wait a touch longer Bob. Its not the heat of your house but the moisture content of the air, which wil be between 8-12%, whereas the driest outside air in the uk would be about 20. So even in cooler areas of your house there is a sudden change in M.C leading to cracking. Possibly. Plus you have released alot of tension in the wood very quickly so all in all it would be struggling NOt to crack.

 

 

Or i could be totally wrong. I usually am haha.

[tommer9]

Lovely piece of turning work though BTW.

[wisewood]

just to add to the other posts, keeping the wall thickness the same as the base may give it some extra flexibility and minimise weak points. Also could try storing it with the shavings, may act as a buffer in regards to loss of mc.